Loeenz muthbb



(No Model.)

L. MUTHER.

NEEDLE EoE SEWING MAGHINBS.

No. 393,119. Patented Nov. 20, 1888 wee 366,6.

N PETERS. Photo-Lithographer, Wadfinglon. o, c

UNITED. STATES PATENT OFFICE,

LORENZ MUTHER, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR TO THE UNION SPECIAL SEWING MACHINE COMPANY, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

NEEDLE FOR SEWING-MACHINES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent N 0. 393,119, dated November 20, 1888.

Application filed May 14, 1888. Serial No. 273,790. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, LORENZ MUTHER, of Chicago, county of Cook, State of Illinois, have invented an Improvement in Sewing- Machines, of which the following description, in connection with the accompanying drawings, isa specification, like letters on the drawings representing like parts.

The invention herein contained is an improvement on that class of sewingmachines wherein parallel seams are to be sewed, the object being to enable the two seams to be made as closely as possible together, both needles being held in one needlebar and both needles being slabbed off or flattened at opposite sides, so that they may be used equally well at either side the center of the needle-bar, the shank of one needle acting against the shank of the other needle.

Figure 1, in elevation, shows part of a needle-bar broken out at its lower end and provided with two needles in accordance with my invention, and Fig. 2 is a section in the line or.

The needle-bar A, bored out at its lower end, as at a, is split longitudinally from its lower end to the point 2, leaving two arms, which are threaded externally, as at a, and the clamping-nut B screwed therein, and as common in other sewing-machines. To enable the two eye-pointed needles b c to be brought 'closely together, their sides, to rest in contact in the needle-bar, were slabbed off or flattened; but in practice a needle slabbed off at but one side its shank and rounded at the opposite side of the shank was found objectionable, for the needles were thus made rights and lefts, or they could be used in but one side of the hole a, for the long groove of the needle shown in Fig. 1 must always stand in the same p0sition with relation to the direction of the feed, 40 and when a needle was broken, which is frequent in sewing, a right or left needle, as it might be, had to be selected to take its place, and, further, by slabbing at one side and making rights and lefts, twice the stock of needles 5 had to be kept on hand. To avoid this trouble,

I slabbed off the shank at opposite sides parallel to the long-groove side, as shown best in Fig. 2, where the shanks are represented as in section. This done each needle could be used :0 equally well at either side the central bore of the needle-bar or the usual opening at thelower end of the needle-bar to receive the shanks of the needles.

I do not clai m a fiat-shanked needle slotted, 5 5 the flat sides of the shank being at the front and back of the needle, I denominating the long-groove side the front.

The shank of each needle, acting against the other, is prevented from turning in the hole a independently of the other.

I claim- The herein-described needle, having its shank slabbed off in like manner at opposite sides, leaving fiat surfaces parallel to the 6 5 length of the eye, whereby the said needle is adapted to be used in contact with a second like needle at either side of the center of the needle bar interchangeably when parallel seams are being sewed, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

LORENZ MUTHER.

Witnesses:

W. S. NORTH, C. McNEIL. 

